Torah – The Recipe For Real Success
As the B’nei Yisrael stood on the threshold of their promised land the tribes of Gad and Reuven approached Moshe with a request. Given their exceptional wealth in terms of cattle ownership, they wished to be alloted the land of…
Women: The Pillars of Jewish Continuity
In my role as Registrar of our unique Beth Din, I regularly receive applications for conversion from men or women whose fathers are Jewish but mothers are not. Frequently, the applicant has lived a Jewish life their entire existence and…
Sixteen Thousand Years
In the age of big numbers we have recently witnessed an awesome but sad statistic. An article in the Economist noted that the loony music video “Gangnam Style” surpassed two billion views on YouTube a few weeks ago, making it…
Not Just Any Stones!
The Talmud (Sotah 42a) says that there are four groups of people that do not merit greeting the Divine presence. One of them is liars. The Ben Ish Chai (Ben Yehoyada ibid) explains that the liar’s punishment is measure for…
What goes around comes around
In this Torah portion we are introduced to a new concept of Galut (exile) regarding one who kills unintentionally; they must flee to a city of refuge where they will be safe and must remain there for a certain amount…